Rumker left the colony in the end of 1828 or beginning of 1829 and became Superintendent in the Nautical School of Hamburgh and Director of the Hamburgh Observatory, and on the 10th February, 1854, the Royal Astronomical Society conferred on him their Gold Medal for his extensive observations chiefly of comets, and a catalogue of twelve thousand stars. (Royal Astronomical Society's Notices, Vol. XIV., p. 43.) He died in February, 1863. (Royal Astronomical Society's Notices, Vol. XXIII., p. 127.)

There is one point in connection with Rumker, at Parramatta, of which it is difficult now to give the true version, and it cannot well, be passed over, seeing that it changed the whole course of Astronomy in this colony. I allude to the sudden termination of his connection with the Parramatta Observatory. Report here said it was wholly due to some sudden incompatibility of temper, and many years afterwards when Sir George Airy, as president of the Royal Astronomical, Society was presenting to Mr. Rumker, the Gold Medal, said "some misapprehension on one side or the other as to the precise terms of his engagement brought the connection with Sir Thomas Brisbane to a close! I am totally unable to say with accuracy what was the point under discussion or the merits of the two views of it." It is however, quite evident that Rumker did not return until Sir Thomas had left, and that in all his subsequent writings about Parramatta, he entirely ignores the fact that Sir Thomas Brisbane was the founder, of the Observatory, and for a time his chief.

Again, it appears From correspondence in the Survey Office, found by Mr. W. D. Campbell, C.E., and given to me that on "January 8th, 1828, Rumker made a requisition for the rods and cylinders for the trigonometrical survey in connection with an arc of the meridian, which he had undertaken to measure," and, as we have already seen, he gave up the observations it Parramatta in December, the same year. As the apparatus could not have been obtained from England under one or two years, and it would have taken a number of years to measure the arc, it is evident that there was a sudden change of purpose between 1828 and 1830, by Mr. Rumker, and that he threw up his appointment while in Europe, where he seems to have gone in December, 1828, or the beginning of 1829.

By a letter which I found in the Colonial Secretary's Office, date 1st September, 1830, it appears that Mr. Rumker was in England and preparing to return to the colony, (Appendix E) It seems, therefore, probable that he had been granted leave of absence to go to England and superintend the purchase of instruments for the survey, and that while there he suddenly changed his mind and threw up his appointment.

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